Hey everyone, 

For this week’s EDES installment we were in the woodshop for our wooden crate project. While  this project was overall much more complicated than the apron, it was less frustrating and taught me a lot. It was also the first group project, and once more I am gonna shout out Aiden for being a solid partner in crime for this project. 

Calculating and Cutting: 

This project started out, as all overly complicated things do, with math. We decided to cut out our own wood, drawing up plans before heading to the woodshop to use the miter saw. While cutting out 19 pieces we gradually improved our work flow. At the start we were measuring and cutting every piece individually before realizing we could make a jig to significantly reduce the amount of time taken to cut each piece. Once checking that everything was correct we moved on to the table router. 

Original plan

Miter Saw jig setup

Cut out pieces

Routing and Random Orbital Sanding: 

The table router is a temperamental machine. We spent a lot of time adjusting the blade height, to get the correct bevel on our pieces which involved a lot of tightening and turning a lot of different parts. The blade we had was a little dull which caused the corners of our pieces to fragment off when the blade finished its cuts. However once we got the machine to work we were able to get some very nice bevels on our pieces and a quick and easy way. From there we sanded our pieces with the random orbital sanders, cleaning up the corners and sides, and giving the flat sides a more finished appearance.

Sanding

Table Routing

Assembling and Adventuring:

This was the longest part of our project and the place that we ran into the most issues. We started off by building the square sidings of the box, clamping the sides pieces with the square jig and hand drilling the connecting holes with an integrated pilothole-countersink bit. Here we ran into the first problem. Since the wood was slightly warped and the clamps became finicky to use with larger pieces, the corners we made ended up not being perfectly square. Subsequently, when we put the bottom panels on one of the squares, we found that our box was not level. To fix this issue we decided to look for an eco-friendly solution, by scavenging 3 caster wheels from the depths of the donor depot and attaching them, in a tricycle formation to the bottom of our crate. With a now level base we moved onto assembling the rest of the box by attaching the 4 support beams and remaining sidings, using scrap 1x4s to evenly distribute the sides. With the speed of an F1 pit crew (we were able to drill, countersink, and place a screw in 6.8 seconds) we finished up the crate and moved onto final touches. 

Initial assembly

Base and sidings

Wheels!

Adding side posts

post processing and pricing:

For the final touches we plugged our drill holes with sawdust and wood glue, sanded the whole assembly with up to 660 grit sandpaper and added several coats of food grade mineral oil. We also cleaned and sanded our wheels to give them a more polished look. 

Pricing: 

Photo of clean work station: